Meet our little lovebug. :)

This is our little love bug. :)

The doctor thinks I'm between 5.5-6 weeks, I disagree due to my charting, and believe that I am 6 weeks and 2 days along. :) Either way, today we got to see our little bug, and a heartbeat beating along at 118bpm.

There was only one thing about this ultrasound that has me a little worried, and it's that there was some weird band below the baby. I have to go back in 2 weeks time to check on the little guy again, so we can get a better idea of what this band is.

I've done some research, and found that there are two kinds of bands that can occur. One is really bad, and the other one is completely benign.

Looking at ultrasounds that looked like what we saw, I believe that the band in our case is the benign kind. It's called an amniotic sheet, and basically, it's a fold in the amniotic sac. These types of folds hold no real threat for the baby, and often just end up getting pushed aside as the baby gets bigger. They happen in every 1/200 pregnancies. They can pose a risk of early labour, or the baby being breech, but this is way better than the alternative type of band.

The other type of band, which I'm certain mine didn't look like, shows up as more of a crosshair that floats inside the amniotic sac. The risks that come with this type of band are severe deformities, cleft palates, loss of limbs, and some other really severe abnomalities. Basically what happens with these bands is that they wrap around the baby, cutting off circulation and not allowing limbs and such to grow properly. This type of band is extremely rare, and only occurs in about 1/1200 pregnancies.

My doctor didn't seem too concerned about the band/fold we saw and said that by next ultrasound it will probably even be gone. It wasn't floating, it was below the baby, and it definitely looked more like a structure than a crosshair, so I think we're good.

Normally, I'd say Dr. Google is not my friend, but in this case, it did help to ease my concern since I could compare what I saw. Hopefully my own Dr. will agree when I go back on the 20th.

All scariness aside, it was a good ultrasound, the baby was where it was supposed to be, and things are trucking along. :)

DH was so ecstatic about the baby that he kissed the ultrasound picture. I reminded him that in doing so, he was also kissing a picture of my uterus... LOL He laughed, since we both have a strange sense of humour. :)